Cheap helmets to make bike-share plan work

CLAY LUCAS

The Age, May 19, 2010

CYCLISTS who join a state government bike-share scheme, to be launched in two weeks in Melbourne's central district, will have to either bring their own helmet or buy a cheap one that will be available as part of their membership.

The first 100 bicycles in the $5.5 million share scheme will be available from 10 docking stations along Swanston Street and St Kilda Road. By July, another 500 bikes are scheduled to appear at 40 more docking stations in the CBD.

But the state's tough cycling laws mean that anyone caught riding a bike without a helmet faces a $146 fine.

A leaked Melbourne City Council map shows 27 confirmed docking station locations with 23 yet to be finalised.

Sixteen of the docking stations are in heritage areas.

One planned for the Bourke Street Mall has been shifted because of concerns it would ''clutter'' a busy footpath.

Melbourne Bike Share will be similar to systems operating overseas in Montreal, Paris, Barcelona, Lyon and Stockholm.

Users will pay $50 a year ($8 a week, or $2.50 a day), which will allow them to take one of the bikes from a docking station.

If the bike is returned to any docking station within half an hour, there is no charge. After half an hour, there is a rising fee for every additional 30 minutes, with a maximum late fee of $500.

A compulsory helmet law has made putting the system into practice more of a challenge in Melbourne than overseas.

Some critics have derided the scheme as a $5 million publicity stunt.

Melbourne City Council planning chairman Peter Clarke said while he thought the bike plan was a good concept, it was ''ill conceived'' in Melbourne because helmet laws would mean most people would not have one on hand to use the bikes.

''You can't just pick something up from another country, dump it here and hope it is going to work,'' Cr Clarke said.

Roads Minister Tim Pallas will launch the scheme on May 31.

His spokesman, Bill Kyriakopoulos, said that ''very cheap'' helmets would be available to people who joined the bike scheme. He did not specify how much the helmets would cost. Helmets would also be available at city shops near the bike stations, Mr Kyriakopoulos said.